World’s First Domed City Coming Soon to Dubai

Stephen King isn’t designing it but the world’s first domed city will be under construction soon in Dubai. The 18-million square-foot hyper-purified, climate-controlled bubble will be comprised of residential, office, hospitality and entertainment. You can live, work and play without ever leaving the dome!

There will be nearly 300 individual buildings, 33 networked roads, 1,641.496 square-feet of walkways and plazas, artificial waterways, bike routes, bus routes, metro train stations and gondola rides. It will also house the world’s largest indoor theme park.

Mall of the World, Aerial

Located in the geographic center of Dubai, the self-contained urban lifestyle center will feature entertainment, cultural and wellness districts. Neighborhoods will be created with street markets, art galleries and shops. The only things missing seem to be fog, rain and sandstorms.

Catering to tourists, 20,000 hotel rooms will be available. It is estimated that 180 million visitors will be hosted annually. The massive domed complex is being called the Mall of the World but the word “mall” is an understatement. It will be nine times bigger than the Mall of America.

Mall of the World, Interior

Dubai Holding COO Morgan Parker says,

We are making good progress with the planning and thoughtful approach to the development of Mall of the World.

More than 100 specialists, including architects, designers, and engineers are working on the project. The developer is Dubai Holding which owns the famous “World” island chain of projects. They built the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, and are finishing the 500-foot taller Jeddah Tower, with the world’s highest observation deck, scheduled to be completed in 2019.

Construction is to take place in two phases, with groundbreaking taking place in eighteen months. The completion date for the Mall of the World is set for 2020. A cost estimate hasn’t been released yet.